Western Aid Workers Freed

Western Aid Workers Freed
8 Workers Held In Kabul Rescued By Rebels And Flown To Pakistan U.S. Estimates Taliban Controls Only 10% Of Afghanistan Osama bin Laden Is Still Being Sought, And Bombing Continues

Nov. 14, 2001

(CBS) Eight western aid workers held by the Taliban are safe in Pakistan, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

A U.S. military helicopter flew the group, including Americans Heather Mercer and Dyna Curry, out of Afghanistan after being held in a cell in Kabul on charges of preaching Christianity. When the Taliban pulled out, the opposition forces were able to rescue them.

The workers are employees of the Germany-based Christian organization Shelter Now International. They had been held since Aug. 3 on charges of trying to convert Muslims, a serious offense in Islamic Afghanistan.

U.S. Officials have already talked to them by phone and they are said to be in good condition. They will go first to a Pakistani military base and from there to Islamabad where their families are waiting.

According to the latest U.S. intelligence estimates, the Taliban now only controls 10 percent of Afghanistan.

Anti-Taliban forces have taken control of the eastern city of Jalalabad, sources said, and there were conflicting reports as to whether the airport outside the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar had also fallen.

The Pentagon said the northern alliance has made gains south of Kabul against Taliban forces, but said it was not clear the opposition had taken control of the airport.

"The northern alliance has continued to make gains south of Kabul as well as Herat and at the outskirts of Jalalabad, but this is just a snapshot and the situation remains fluid," Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem told a media briefing.

"Anti-Taliban opposition groups in southern Afghanistan are rebelling against Taliban control, especially near Kandahar. Again though, this situation is very dynamic," he added.

Meanwhile, the northern alliance moved Wednesday to consolidate its grip on Kabul, taking over key posts and ministries. Forced to retreat south, the Taliban were struggling to prevent their movement from disintegrating.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that, while it is gratifying to see the people of Afghanistan getting their country back, there are key Taliban leaders to be found.

"Some have been killed, others are hiding, and there are no particular reports of senior leadership having been located," Rumsfeld said in New York, adding. "The Taliban, some pieces of it, are melting into the countryside because they have decided to toss in the towel. In other cases, they may be simply waiting to counterattack at some other time."

Asked if the intelligence on Osama bin Laden's location is getting any better, if he was on the run, Vice President Dick Cheney told CBS News' Gloria Borger, "I think he is. I think he's probably still in Afghanistan but I think he's having to move pretty dramatically from place to place to try to stay ahead of the advancing forces of the opposition."

On Tuesday, an unmanned CIA drone armed with anti-tank missiles along with U.S. military jets attacked and destroyed a building where senior members of bin Laden's network were believed to be meeting. U.S. officials assume everyone in the building was killed, but they don't know their identities, don't know if bin Laden was among them.

Allied forces will keep bombing selected military targets in Afghanistan until bin Laden is found, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said. U.S. warplanes kept up pressure on the Taliban with air raids outside the capital Wednesday. American aircraft bombed the airport and military installations around the city of Jalalabad at least six times overnight and early in the morning, it was reported.

World leaders were trying to cobble together a multinational peacekeeping force for Afghanistan and plans for a transitional government for a country racked by civil war since the former Soviet Union invaded on Christmas Day, 1979, to back communist rule in the Muslim country.

Pashtun tribal leaders in key areas of the south were reportedly in open revolt against the fundamentalist Islamic militia. That was potentially bad news for bin Laden, who is reported to be somewhere in the vicinity of Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan.

In the capital, radio broadcasts resumed and television was promised soon. Northern alliance officials returned to government offices they abandoned in 1996 when the Taliban drove them out.

Officials portrayed the takeover of key ministries, such as defense and interior, as temporary and said they support a U.N.-supervised political settlement in which all ethnic groups would be represented.

In the south and east of the country, the situation appeared chaotic as local tribal leaders appeared to challenge the Taliban in the ethnic Pashtun heartlands.
Afghan sources in Pakistan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the airport in the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar was held by about 200 fighters loyal to Arif Khan, a member of a southern Pashtun tribe.

In Kabul, relieved residents awoke Wednesday after a night free of the nearby crash of U.S. bombs. Triumphant northern alliance fighters patrolled the streets.

The Taliban abandoned Kabul and headed south before dawn Tuesday after the northern alliance, backed by intensive American bombing, fought their way to the edge of the city.

Mohammed Alam Ezdediar, who headed a northern alliance radio station before Kabul fell, assumed control of the newly renamed Radio Afghanistan and resumed airing music, which the Taliban had banned as frivolous.

Daoud Naimi, the new acting director of TV Afghanistan, said he hoped to resume television broadcasts soon. Television was also banned by the Taliban as un-Islamic.

Kabul residents cheerfully abandoned other Taliban edicts — children flew kites, teen-agers listened to music and men shaved their beards. But most women retained their all-encompassing burqas.

The top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan outlined a plan for a two-year transitional government with a multinational security force. On Tuesday, northern alliance spokesman Abdullah said his movement supported the plan.

For the time being, however, the alliance, especially the Jamiat-e-Islami faction of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, moved into key ministries in the capital.

Pakistani intelligence sources said the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was trying to rally his remaining followers. Omar was either traveling with or was remaining in close communications with bin Laden, they added.

The Pentagon said U.S. special forces were in southern Afghanistan, working on the next phase of the campaign. U.S military planners think the best course is to approach ethnic Pashtun tribal leaders in the south who are unhappy with the Taliban — and persuade them to defect.

In other developments:

An aide to Afhanistan's exiled monarch, Zaher Shah, said Wednesday that the 87-year-old king was willing to return to Afghanistan. Shah, who ruled for 40 years, has lived in Rome since he was ousted in 1973 in a palace coup.

The United Nations sent its first delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, 55 tons of winter supplies via a barge across the Amu Darya River that separates Afghanistan from Uzbekistan.

In London, thousands of British troops were ordered to prepare for possible duty in Kabul and other cities of Afghanistan.

Here's the AP version: (I won't post it as a separate thread so as to keep this you've posted as the main one for discussion):

Aid Workers Freed in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, Nov 14, 2001 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Eight foreign aid workers held by the Taliban militia since last August for preaching Christianity were freed Wednesday and were headed to Pakistan, a U.S. official said. Two of the eight are Americans.

A second U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were freed as a result of military action, but would give no details.

The disclosure came after the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said he was confident the eight would be released soon.

Seif el-Islam Gadhafi, chairman of the Gadhafi Foundation for Charitable Organizations, told The Associated Press that his non-governmental organization has been in touch with the Taliban for about two months in efforts to win their freedom.

"I believe that the Taliban will release these people in the near future," he said in a statement to the AP made through Libya's consulate in Vienna.

In Washington, State Department spoeksman Richard Boucher said he hopes the reports are true but could not confirm them. He said U.S. officials had received no word from the Taliban as to the whereabouts of the Americans or on whether they will be released.

Although the United States accuses Libya of sponsoring terrorism, and recently extended sanctions against foreign companies suspected of doing business with the North African nation, Washington suspended sanctions against Libya itself in 1999.

The suspension came after Libya handed over two officials for trial on charges of planting the bomb that downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The attack killed 270 people, including 179 Americans.

The eight workers - four Germans, two Americans and two Australians - are employees of the Germany-based Christian organization Shelter Now International. They have been held since Aug. 3 on charges of trying to convert Muslims, a serious offense in Islamic Afghanistan.

Taliban Supreme Court judges had indefinitely postponed their trial, saying they feared anger at the United States over the airstrikes could hamper their ability to make a fair ruling in the case.

On Tuesday, the eight were moved from their cells in a detention center in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and were taken to the south by retreating Taliban forces.

Jimmy Seibert, senior pastor at the Texas church attended by the two Americans, Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, said he had not received word on when the women would be released.

"Our hope is that they will be released in the next couple of days,," Seibert said Wednesday at a news conference at Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas.

Gadhafi's son said his foundation made contact with the Taliban "with the aim of finding a solution for these people through third-party mediation," and that the effort was bearing fruit "because of the good standing the foundation enjoys in this area."

He said his group was working "to try to visit these people in order to convey letters and messages from them to their families," adding: "As far as I know, they are all in good health."

Joachim Jaeger, co-chairman of Shelter Now, told the AP on Wednesday that the organization had not yet been contacted by Gadhafi's son or his foundation.

But Jaeger said he welcomed any nonviolent assistance in winning the freedom of the eight. "We are thankful for everything that helps, of course, as long as it's peaceful," he said.

Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, played down a German newspaper report Wednesday suggesting that his government had information from foreign intelligence agencies indicating the eight were already on their way back to Kabul.

"I have no new information to report on the status of the jailed Shelter Now workers," Fischer told reporters.

Libya is anxious to improve its standing with the West, and last year, it was involved in freeing all but one of 21 Western tourists and Asian workers kidnapped by rebels in the Philippines.

By GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer

Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved

Source: AP

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